Moon Lake Park's return will be slow

Mark Moran / The Citizens' Voice
A broken swing hangs near the picnic area in Moon Lake Park.

A frequent visitor to Moon Lake Park as a little boy in the 1980s, Aaron Stredny remembers the summer pass pinned to his bathing suit at the packed swimming pool, and being "terrified" of the high dive. He also remembers Cub Scout outings in the forest and weekend camp-outs with his parents.

Now 32, the Forty Fort native is one of the few still regularly visiting the Luzerne County owned and operated park in Hunlock Creek.

"It's almost like a ghost park compared to what it used to be," said Stredny, an avid mountain biker who frequents the 650-acre recreation area's wooded trails.

After a cash-strapped Luzerne County government laid off nearly all of the staff after the summer of 2008 and deferred needed maintenance, the park has languished. A September afternoon drive-through flushes nearly as many deer bounding across the road as people recreating. A sagging and water-logged cover keeps wildlife out of the pool, the picnic tables are rotting and falling apart and vandals and thieves have struck in every vulnerable place.

County Manager Robert Lawton, who arrived in Luzerne County last year during the low point in Moon Lake Park's history, has still touted its potential, saying repeatedly the park could become the "people's country club" with the right amount of investment and attention.

"I think it's not unreasonable for us to work hard to give the average taxpayer who isn't part of the justice system, who isn't in need of human services, who wants a place to take their kids on a Saturday afternoon, I think it's not too much to say, 'We're going to work to make sure they have that,'" Lawton said.

But to get back to where it was, the park's nearly 50-year-old infrastructure - roads, water lines, sewer lines, etc. - needs replacing at a cost of an estimated $5 million according to a county-developed master plan.

Joe Gibbons, the former county engineer who worked to keep the park usable after the funding cuts, says that figure could be double. With an outstanding debt of more than $300 million, that's money the county doesn't have laying around.

The question then is how to do it. To get the flywheel turning, as Lawton puts it, the county has set aside $130,000 and applied for a matching grant with the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for a boat launch in the park's namesake. The county will learn the outcome this fall.

Attracting more visitors to the nearly empty park will make the winning of future grants from government agencies more likely, as the county can show that it is putting the money to good use, said Chris Belleman, a former assistant county engineer and currently the division head of Operational Services, which oversees Moon Lake Park.

The county also has received more than $400,000 in proceeds from state fracking taxes the past two years and has designated those funds for recreational use.

Those are just a couple of loads of bricks in the skyscraper though. Lawton also floated the idea of selling the 62-acre property that includes the former Valley Crest Nursing Home property in Plains Township and flipping the proceeds to rebuild Moon Lake Park's roads and infrastructure. But an attempt has been made before with little interest, though a party from the Wilkes-Barre Area School District, searching for a new high school site, kicked the tires at one point. A $4.7 million sale of the nursing home to the Salvation Army - the lone bidder - fell through in 2010 when Plains Township refused to change its zoning ordinances.

Even so, Luzerne County council has asked Lawton and his staff for a full accounting of all county real estate holdings, for possible sales council would ultimately have to approve. Lawtwon says they will have that info by the end of the year.

Councilman Eugene Kelleher, who sits on council's real estate committee and is a general supporter of the county manager, said he would support the cash from a Valley Crest sale going toward the revival of Moon Lake Park.

Councilman Edward Brominski, another member of the committee and one of the most vocal among Lawton's few opponents on the legislative body, said while the development of a restoration plan for the park was a good idea, the county currently has too many other financial holes to fill before turning its attention to what he said was once "one of the most beautiful parks in the state."

"When you have champagne tastes and beer pockets, you can't do too much," Brominski said.

The park has also been used as collateral in the past when the county has borrowed money, but solicitor David Pedri said he saw no problem with the county improving a property it had put up to guarantee a bond issue.

In the short term and while the county scrounges for the millions needed, Lawton said initial rehabilitation could be achieved with "muscle power" rather than spending.

To begin to "put Moon Lake Park back on the map," he said the county could use inmates from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility to repair the pavilions, clear the trails and groom the baseball fields, tennis and basketball courts. Lawton called those fixes "a good target" for next summer.

"This truly is a multi-year project," Lawton said. "It took four years for us to get down into this situation. It's going to take more than four to get it back out, even if you had a reasonably good cash flow. We're going to be cutting and fitting and patching to get to the first step of usability."

While the wooded acres and grass fields of Moon Lake Park are sparsely visited, the park's more popular days are something county officials say they plan to bring back.

"We gotta have something," Lawton said. "And it needs to be a point of pride for people."

pcameron@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2110, @cvpetercameron

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